H Y P N U M subtile.
Slender Feather-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Caps, ovate-oblong, from a lateral scaly
sheath. Outer fringe of l6 teeth, dilated at the
base : inner a variously-toothed membrane. Veil
smooth.
Spec. Char. Stem creeping, with slender threadshaped
branches. Leaves lanceolate, acute, ribless,
rather loosely spreading. Capsule erect.
Lid conical.
Syn. H y p n um subtile. Hoffm. Germ. v. 2. 70.
Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 4. 17. Sm. FI. Brit. 1277*
Turn. Muse. Hib. 135.
Leskea subtilis. Hedw. Sp. Muse, 221. Crypt, v. 4.
23. t. 9.
W e t situations, about the roots of trees, and watery gravelly
heaths, produce this moss, but the capsules do not often occur
in England. We are obliged to take them from a German specimen
of Mr. Turner’s. The very slender; creeping, entangled
stems throw up numerous, erect, short, extremely slender, round,
almost always simple, branches, composing fine matted tufts.
The leaves are light yellowish green, loosely clothing the branches,
spreading every way, lanceolate, very acutely pointed, entire,
destitute of rib or veins; and the scales of the sheath are like
them, but more concave; both appear reticulated, with oblong
interstices, under a microscope. The fruitstalks are capillary
and reddish, hardly an inch high, ascending. ' Capsule either
quite erect, or, when ripe, sometimes slightly inclining, cylindrical,
wide-mouthed, quite smooth and even, light brown. Lid conical,
short and reddish, according to Hedwig, who, finding the inner
fringe with 16 simple equal teeth, refers this moss to his Leskea,,
a genus we do not adopt.